For Every Season,

Amish Vines & Orchards, #3

by Cindy Woodsmall

Review & Giveaway!

4.0 out of 5 stars For Every Season

Description

Working hard to develop a new Amish community outside of Unity, Maine, Rhoda Byler is fully committed to rehabilitating an orchard with business partner Samuel King. But an impulsive decision has created an unexpected strain in her relationship with her beau, Samuel’s brother, Jacob, threatening plans for the orchard. Amidst mounting tension in matters of the heart and business, Rhoda finds that this fledgling settlement feels like the home she has always longed for, and she begins to embrace the God-given, heightened intuition that has always felt like a burden to her. She longs for Jacob to fully be free of his past, so they can work towards the future together.
 
But as Rhoda uses her gift to unpack an old secret with her Englisch neighbors, it is not her beau but an unlikely ally that cheers her on. With the orchard on shaky ground and Jacob’s plans in question, Rhoda is determined to see things through to harvest. But can she trust her insight to direct her path in matters of the heart?

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Read Chapter 1
http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/files/2013/06/SneakPeek_ForEverySeason.pdf

Biography

Cindy Woodsmall is a New York Times and CBA best-selling author of numerous works of fiction and one of nonfiction. Her connection with the Amish community has been featured widely in national media. She lives in the Foothills of the North Georgia Mountains with her family.

Author's website: http://www.cindywoodsmall.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorcindywoodsmall

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/cindywoodsmall/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/117290.Cindy_Woodsmall

My Review ~

Rhoda Byler has a heightened intuition causing her to have premonitions, visions and hearing the voice of her sister Emma, who was murdered a few years earlier. In a new chapter in her life helping restore an abandoned apple orchard and establish a new Amish community in Maine, Rhoda hopes to escape the ghosts of her past. Rhoda has had an ongoing relationship with Jacob King, who is drawn out of her life more often than into it due to serious troubles as a result of his past. His brother, Samuel, and Rhoda have trouble meeting eye to eye where business decisions regarding the orchard come into play, but Samuel's respect and admiration for Rhoda has turned his head, and as he succumbs to kissing Rhoda, Jacob appears once again. Jacob is infuriated with his brother for kissing Rhoda, and throughout the story the brothers are at odds with each other. When an Indiana Amish girl is hired to help with the paperwork at the farm Rhoda is forced to move in with an Englisch couple. Rhoda loves the peace and beauty of her surroundings in the orchard, and looks forward to canning the fruits of her labors, but her future there is threatened by Jacob's jealousy over the kiss that Samuel and Rhoda shared. His jealous accusations and insecurities cause continuing stress for Rhoda.

Numerous characters are involved in this book, the third in a series. I received the book without having the opportunity to read the two previous books in the series, and found it hard to sort out all of the characters at first. Cindy Woodsmall is an artist at depicting a beautiful portrait of the locale in this book, and I easily envisioned the beautiful countryside with the orchard developing throughout the spring and summer months as the story develops. The main characters are very well defined to the point that I was constantly frustrated with Jacob and his penchant for running off to "take care of his self-imposed issues" at Rhoda's expense. I became irritated with Rhoda for her indecisive and spineless nature in her relationship with Jacob, dropping everything at Jacob's insistence in order to please him. This book is well written, but I would not recommend it as a stand-alone novel. There is too much information based on the previous books in the series, and the story ends rather abruptly as a sequel is to follow. I would love to read the entire series of books in order to have the advantage of the long-range advancement of character development and evolving plot developments. 

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own, and no monetary compensation was received for this review.

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